All posts tagged forex

Currency trading has stagnated in much of the world this year, but the loonie has managed to retain more trading interest than some other key global currencies, in part because central banks are buying more of the Canadian currency.

Central banks in several major economies study currency trading in their respective domains in April and October of every year, and the results of their research were released Monday. Read More »

At a podium in front of a blue-chip Toronto crowd, Canadian Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair seemed a bit like a man with a change of heart.

As before, he decried the loss over the past decade of some 500,000 manufacturing jobs in Canada, and bemoaned the “artificially high Canadian dollar.”

Reuters

But in a nod to the importance of Canada’s commodities engine, Mr. Mulcair, who heads the left-leaning federal New Democratic Party, voiced support for a pipeline that would transport crude from Alberta’s oil sands to eastern Canada. He said a proposed increase in domestic pipeline capacity would “pay economic dividends for every region of our country,” bringing new markets for Western Canadian producers, as well as high-paying value-added jobs and lower energy prices in Eastern Canada.

Notably, Mr. Mulcair didn’t specifically invoke the phrase “Dutch disease” on Friday, to describe what some see as a threat posed to the Canadian economy by the country’s heavy reliance on the resource sector. But its attributes were peppered throughout his prepared remarks — the high domestic currency, the buildup of the resource sector, and struggles of other export-driven sectors. Read More »

Remember when some economists and politicians in Iceland floated the idea that the island nation should adopt the Canadian dollar instead of its devalued Icelandic krona? With the krona plummeting against the U.S. dollar after Iceland’s banking sector collapsed in 2008, Canada’s loonie was seen as a strong and safe alternative, even though the two nations had little in common aside from some fishing exports and small cultural ties.

The idea–which never went mainstream–attracted attention in Canada, where the talk was seen as a vote of confidence in Canada’s economic fundamentals. It gathered steam when Alan Bones, Canada’s ambassador to Iceland, agreed to address a group of loonie-minded Icelandic businessmen and politicians on the currency shift. The talk tapered off after Steingrímur Sigfusson, Iceland’s minister of economic affairs, told the Wall Street Journal that adopting the Canadian dollar was “off the table.”

Iceland’s central bank recently gave its view on whether the krona should be dropped in favor of another currency, and it doesn’t look good for the loonie. In a report on the country’s currency options, the central bank describes the Canadian dollar as a “poor choice” for Iceland when compared to other currencies such as the euro or the Danish krone. Read More »

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